The Fourth District
Court of Appeal yesterday ruled in favor of the Episcopal Church in its
struggle with a San Diego County congregation that sought to leave the church
over theological differences and affiliate with an Anglican church in Africa.

Holding that disaffected
members of St. John’s Parish church in Fallbrook lost their ability to amend
the parish corporation’s bylaws and articles of incorporation to make the
affiliation when they resigned, Div. One ruled in favor of a group of loyalist
parishioners who sought a declaration that they were the corporation’s true
directors.

The parish’s clergy,
members of its governing board and a majority group of its members resigned their
membership in the Episcopal Church in 2006 over long-term doctrinal
differences. Rev. Donald Kroeger explained at the time that “[i]t appeared that
the Episcopal Church was not going to return to its biblical roots and was
moving further and further away from mainstream Anglican faith and biblical
teaching.”

The bishop of the
Diocese of San Diego determined that the remaining loyalist members of the
parish constituted its true membership and that the resigned dissident members
were no longer qualified to serve as members of the parish’s governing board,
and a new board was elected from among the loyalists.

However, the resigned
members—who had since voted to become affiliated with a member of the Anglican
Church in Uganda—refused to relinquish their seats or control over assets held
by the parish corporation to the new board, and the new board sued to determine
who were the lawful directors.

Neutral Principles

San Diego Superior Court
Judge Jacqueline M. Stern ruled for the dissident board members, concluding
under neutral principles of California corporations law that they were the true
directors because the plaintiffs could not show the defendants ever stopped
being directors.

But Justice Gilbert
Nares reversed on appeal, concluding “that the individual defendants, once they
resigned their membership in the Episcopal Church, relinquished any rights they
had to be directors of the Parish corporation and that any acts they took
thereafter in such roles were a nullity.”

He also wrote that Stern
should have deferred to the Episcopal Church’s determination with respect to
who were the lawful directors because the question involved the resolution of a
“matter of ecclesiastical doctrine, polity or administration,” and opined that
a neutral reading of church law similarly supported the conclusion that the
dissident members could no longer serve after renouncing their membership.

Representatives of the
plaintiffs and the San Diego diocese could not be reached for comment, but
defense counsel Eric C. Sohlgren of Payne & Fears in Irvine told the
MetNews that he thought the Court of Appeal erred in “disregarding the fact
that St. John’s is separately incorporated.”

‘Religious Liberty’

Nares made note in his
opinion that the parish corporation’s bylaws adopted the constitution and
canons of the Episcopal Church, but Sohlgren called it a “matter of religious
liberty” for parishioners to change their church’s affiliation, saying that the
court’s decision meant that “once [churches] sign up, they can never leave.”

Sohlgren also said that
he was surprised that the court had issued a decision in the matter, given that
the California Supreme Court is expected in early January to issue a ruling
over the ownership status of church property under similar circumstances in Episcopal
Church Cases, S155094,
which involves St. James Parish in Newport Beach, which similarly left the
Episcopal Church and affiliated with the Anglican Church of Uganda.

Partly in light of the
pending case, Sohlgren commented, his clients are “seriously considering” an
appeal to the Supreme Court.